Heliophobia

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List of terms related to Heliophobia

Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]

Overview

Heliophobia has two meanings:

• a specific phobia: dread or avoidance of sunlight
• excessive sensitiveness to sunlight.

Causes

Heliophobia is a problem that afflicts hundreds of Americans, but one that suffers from a lack of true research. The Pacific Health Center suggested that many people have been staying away from the sun because of growing fears about skin cancer. This is not technically heliophobia, simply an unfounded and illogical solution.

Medical conditions such as keratoconus, which is an eye disorder that results in extreme optic sensitivity to sunlight and bright lights, and porphyria cutanea tarda, which causes the skin to be overly sensitive to sunlight to the point of causing blisters, can result in heliophobia.

Since heliophobia forces its victims indoors, heliophobia causes a Vitamin D deficiency problem. This can be corrected by taking Vitamin D supplements or drinking Vitamin D fortified milk.

Hypersensitivity

In chemistry or biology the terms heliophobic/heliophobe refers to an organism or substance that is sunlight-sensitive or has an aversion to sunlight.

Heliophobous plants are commonly known as "shade-tolerant".

In culture

The classic history of heliophobia can be seen easily in most modern vampire stories (Nosferatu was the first to claim heliophobia as an attribute of vampires), in which it was shown that vampires had a total aversion to the sun. This heliophobia was considered a "telltale sign" of witches, vampires, and demons.

There was a short-lived magazine Heliophobe (3 issues, 1994-1996), described as "a not-so-sexual fetish magazine exclusively devoted to pale-skinned women".

Heliophobe is a 1997 album by a German rock band Scumbucket